Talk:United States border preclearance

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[edit] Who are the agents?

I live in Toronto, and go through preclearance at the airport here several times a year. I've always wondered -- who are these pre-clearance agents???

Are they American Citizens? Canadian Citizens? Dual Citizens? Do they live in Canada full time, or are they from other border posts and doing a "Canadian Rotation"? Do they need a work visa?!? Is there housing for them?

I suspect they are staffed from the nearest US city bureau on secondment in rosters, for example, those working at Niagara Falls and Buffalo Bureau may get a shift at Pearson for part of his/her work. --JNZ (talk) 09:00, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Suggested additions

Are the following true (if so, they'd make good additions to the article)

  1. doesn't one also goes through US customs (immediately after the immigration point)?
  2. beyond the US-INS point one is one legally inside the US?
  3. if one passes through the US-INS point and then decides not to fly, must one go through the host country's immigration point?
  4. if a traveller is found to have an outstanding federal arrest warrant, what happens? If this were a normal immigration point they'd be detained, but can this happen at pre-clearance?
  5. travellers generally arrive at domestic terminals in the US, and aren't required to undergo further immigration and customs procedures.

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:18, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

On doing some research (links in the article) I've answed these:
  1. yes
  2. no (despite what one Dublin newspaper article claims)
  3. no (you never left the host country)
  4. no (although they may try to get local law-enforcement to arrest you, if that's appropriate for the local jurisdiction)
  5. yes
-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:44, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

I'd have to have somebody check now, but when I went through the Alaska Marine Highway terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia as late as 1992, they precleared you there before you got on the ferry to Ketchikan, Alaska and points north. Is that still the case? CJewell (talk) 15:42, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

In Canadian pre-clearance facilities the signage clearly indicates that you are still on Canadian soil and subject to the protections afforded by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that you may withdraw your application to enter the United States at any point. Interestingly enough, if memory serves me correct the INS staff are empowered to make arrests for breaches of the Criminal Code of Canada within the pre-clearance facility by detaining the suspect and having local law-enforcement summoned.

From my own experience when my flight from Toronto to New York was canceled last April 15, 2007, here are my answers.

  1. yes
  2. yes (according to the canadian immigration officer because all the passengers were required to go thru canadian immigration and customs)
  3. yes (same reason as number 2)
  4. have no idea
  5. no

Hope it answers your question... -chris^_^ 00:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

As to (2): no, after pre-clearance but before leaving the Canadian soil one is still "legally in Canada", just like the passengers who have landed in Canada but have not cleared Canadian immigration/customs etc. yet. That is, Canadian Criminal Code and other laws still apply. Vmenkov 01:19, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming

I'm going to rename this to "U.S. border preclearance", as most (all but the Ireland) facilities do the full border works (customs, immigration, agriculture, and public health). "Preclearance" seems to be much more commonly used (even by USCBP), although they also used it with the hyphen. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:24, August 31, 2005 (UTC)


"As the U.S. requires those in transit through the U.S to pass through U.S. immigration (unlike many other countries, which permit airside transfers), preclearance also applies to transit passengers."

can somebody clarify the point of that statement? if its a canadian airport, intl-to-intl transfer wouldnt involve us preclearance. intl-to-us transfer would obviously have to go through us immigration.

[edit] International flights and order of pre-clearance

Howabout flights originating from a third country and proceeding to the United States with a stopover in Canada? If that airline takes passengers from Canada onward to the United States such as Philippine Airlines which has a route Manila-Vancouver-Las Vegas or Cathay Pacific which has a Hong Kong-Vancouver-JFK route, do all passengers there need to undergo pre-clearance or will they have to clear CBP inspections at the US port of entry?

Also, what is the order of pre-clearance in Canada? Immigration -> Customs -> Check-in? Customs -> Check-in -> Immigration?

You may want to include those points in the article because I am not sure how they work. --58.69.4.249 16:11, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

In my personal experience in Vancouver (from some years back), it is Check-in -> Immigration -> Customs. (They won't let you go to the immigration desk without the boarding pass; and customs always follow immigration, in US airports or border crossings as well). If one flies e.g. YHZ-YUL-EWR, one checks in in Halifax, but only goes thru US immigration and customs in YUL, on the way to his US-bound flight. Vmenkov 00:32, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stamped or not?

I recently came back from Toronto to New York last April... when I went thru pre-clearance, they only stamped (the admitted thing...) my boarding pass and my customs and declaration card, but they didn't stamp my passport. Shouldn't this be stated in the article? -chris^_^ 00:24, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

This is not too different from the land borders: they sometimes stamp your passport, and sometimes don't, depending on your nationaliy and status on this visit. E.g., the US Immigration will (usually) stamp somebody's passport if he has to be issued a new I-94 (departure card); but if there is no I-94 (most Canadian citizens on a "visitor for business/pleasaure", i.e. B-1 or B-2 visit), or a the existing I-94 is reused (a Canadian or thrid-country national re-entering the US from Canada and reusing his I-94 issued on an earlier entry into the US), then the Americans usually don't bother stamping his passport. Vmenkov 01:06, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Not all flights...

It seems to me worth noting that not all flights out of the airports listed into the US use the preclearance facilities. For instance, I flew from Bermuda to Baltimore a couple of years ago and we cleared customs at the airport in the US as usual. Before putting in anything about it, it would be useful to determine why some flights use these faciliites and some don't. --Jfruh (talk) 00:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why not other European countries?

Does anyone know why the US made an agreement with Ireland in the 1980s, but no further preclearance facilities have opened in Europe since then? Dublin and Shannon serve relatively few US-bound passengers, compared to London Heathrow or Paris Charles de Gaulle. Was this considered an unsuccessful pilot scheme, or have other EU governments failed to support it? Mtford 02:16, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Irish airports were allowed to have preclearance facilities in exchange for allowing Shannon to be used as a hub for American troops. The main waiting room for transfers is occassionally filled with Army men in the early hours or late at night when there are few passengers about. As for why other European airports don't have them, they probably don't want the hassle of U.S. Immigration in their airports. A passenger would have to arrive to Heathrow or CDG about 60-90 minutes earlier to make it through the process in time to catch his flight. The comparative lack of trans-Atlantic traffic at Dublin/Shannon might actually be what makes preclearance viable.
If someone can find a source, that info would be great to have in the article. --Padraic 23:12, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other countries?

I know this article is about U.S. border preclearance, but it would be interesting to know about other countries. I seem to remember an official passport check before boarding the London-Paris train, in both directions. Szu (talk) 02:41, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Other Way (Flying from US to Canada)

I once flew to Toronto from Auckland years ago. On that flight I literally had two border clearances on the same day: US immigration at LAX, then a domestic flight to ORD, and finally a flight to YYZ that was nothing different from regular domestic flights at ORD (for US airlines, flights to Canada like other intl flights, mostly fly from their own terminals), but on arrival at YYZ I had to undergo immigration and customs and needed to fill in immigration forms - which is something you don't need for land border crossing points.

Does anyone know if clearance procedures for passengers flying to Canada from the US is any different from flying to Canada from other countries, such as fewer forms, different immigration and customs counters or, and less procedures? --JNZ (talk) 09:00, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Not to my knowledge - I have arrived to YVR (and occasionally other Canadian airports) many times on flights both from the US and from the "far abroad" (Mexico, or real "overseas" countries), and there was no difference - in fact, passengers coming from different international flights - whether from US or Europe or Asia - all come to the same passport check gates. Vmenkov (talk) 01:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)